The Brutal Start (VII)

Furthermore, what lit Astrid's day was the fact both skills had leveled up. His conjecture was that milestones or key-defining battles would cause it to level up but he would never expect something like this to happen this early.

After inspecting his stats a little more bit, he got up and noticed something. The wolves didn't even attack him.

Glancing around, he was quite amused that the remaining wolves that were still alive, were all bowing to him?

"What is going on?" Astrid said out loud as he surveyed what was happening. It seemed that all the wolves were in bowing at him. This made him super confused until a thought popped into his mind.

A wolfpack usually had an alpha leader. But what if, someone else challenges the leader and beats him. Then wouldn't this be a succession towards the position. This could also explain why the wolves were treating him as if he was the zenith of all the wolves.

Nodding to himself, Astrid tried to communicate that it was fine and no need for such respect but they seemed to listen. As some left their spots and continued on with their day.

- 𝕿𝖍𝖊 𝕭𝖗𝖚𝖙𝖆𝖑 𝕾𝖙𝖆𝖗𝖙 (VII): 𝕬𝖈𝖈𝖊𝖑𝖊𝖗𝖆𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝕿𝖗𝖆𝖎𝖓𝖎𝖓𝖌 -

Turning back to the corpse, a strange phenomenon began to occur. The wolf's body began to glow a strange shattering noise could be heard as the chains that bonded the wolf with another strange object began to shrivel and break.

Soon a large mass of energy could be seen rising from his body and floated into the air. It was the wolf's soul. What was peculiar was that it never happened to any other creature he had killed before except of the alpha wolf.

'Was it because he was a strong opponent?' Astrid thought as he reached out a hand and touched it. Immediately the orb disappeared as a rush of strong energy flow throughout.

It was a good-feeling sensation but Astrid knew that he had to be careful or he would get addicted to it. He had heard of psychopathic murderers killing for fun as it was pleasurable but he found those people disdainful and disgusting.

And that was how the day ended. Astrid assumed the position of Wolfpack leader subconsciously and he trained for two more weeks. With his steel fortitude and undying motivation, he had fruitful training results.

Soon the third week of his training came by just as the second weak flew by.

Astrid was doing pushups in a small clearing in the forest. Surrounding were large boulders that were wet and moist with green moss encasing the side. The large trees seemed to pave a way for this clearing as small flowers growing on the side. The flowers looked like tulips he had seen before when he was younger but were smaller and were also orange with a tinge of yellow.

Strangely enough, the tree's canopy provided very little sunlight which made Astrid question how were the delicate flowers were able to grow without the important process of photosynthesis.

Astrid did however prefer training here and didn't like training in the canyon because it had a welcoming atmosphere that made him feel motivated.

Suddenly, a large shadow darted out of the bushes and went straight for Astrid. Astrid's reaction speed was fast and grabbed his sword and pointed at the enemy to realize that it was no foe.

It was one of the wolves.

The wolf had many injuries bleeding out of the cuts that riddled its body and it had desperation/ sorrow etched into its face. Judging by the situation, it gave him a few clues on what had happened.

As he was his new leader, he couldn't say that he was a good leader but he just didn't interact much with the wolves.

However, that was not said and done for the wolves who at first were quite cautious. Then they realized that he really didn't care about his position, so their attitude changed to one of their own. Oftentimes, he would just watch their activity in the night while they cuddled with one and another and slept together.

They were like dogs he had seen before, but much more ferocious and aggressive. The wolves were also fluffy too as sometimes he would just walk around to ruffle their fur. It was a great way to relieve stress and neither party had an issue with it.

Lately, Astrid had been hearing thunderous thrashing throughout the forest, he had tried investigating before but he couldn't seem to find the source of the commotion. The spot he had determined the commotion took place was completely flattened out. The verdant trees and land were shredded as a large monster couldn't help but bulldoze it apart.

By linking the two cases, there could be the possibility that the source of the thrashing was a creature that ventured out even further than its boundaries from before.

The creature could have liked killing and destroying the land. Or it wanted to expand its territory. The second could explain why the creature was attacking the wolves as he wanted their territory.

The wolves had been attacked but it seemed the damage could further prevent if…

Astrid got up and grabbed his sword. Nodding, he ran back along with the wolf towards the canyon. Throughout the route, he concealed his excitement because it was a while had to face an opponent. Minutes later, they had arrived leading to the source of the ruckus.

It was a praying mantis. Not any normal mantis, it was a behemoth-sized praying mantis who had gigantified pincers of great strength. Multiple bodies had been strewn bodies lying in a cold pile of blood, all belonging to the Dreadberry wolves. Whilst many more were injured and wounded

As more and more, of the mantis showed up, the body seemed to increase in size at an alarming rate.

Astrid was considered the leader of the pack resulting in his responsibility to due with such a troublesome situation but looking at the 'situation'….

Have I ever been this nervous and scared before? Astrid thought as he readied his sword. His body begins to tremble. Is this fear? No, I have faced fear far more suffocating than before. It even feels like the ground is shaking and breaking apart. Astrid thought as he tried to focus on the target ahead.

'Urgh, the mantis really is ginormous.'

The giant praying mantis was similar to any other mantis. Like the praying mantis, it relied on great camouflage and speed. However, there was no point in camouflage here because he was first standing in a desert. Second, he was ginormous. A praying mantis speed was also a factor that he had to take an account. A normal praying mantis could snatch its prey in 60 milliseconds. However, since it was quite large, its speed would be sliced.

Racing, Astrid sped towards the mantis who just only gave him a quick glance as he stared down the canyon. It would be the biggest miscalculation he could make.

However, Astrid did not let this faze or bother him. Right now he needed to focus on the mantis. The worst thing he could do was underestimate someone's speed or strength.

Astrid went first. Using his body's momentum he boosted himself forward and flew in the air aiming the sword at the mantis. The mantis pincer however blocked the sword as it shifted its feet.

Using its pincers it stabbed where Astrid was. Astrid dodged but looking at the spot where pincers was supposed to hit, it hit the ground instead which had a miniature crater.

Using this technique again, the mantis quickly and methodically stabbed Astrid multiple times but he continued to dodge it, not stopping once.

However, Astrid was getting tired of dodging and wanted to end this.

Using his katana, he tried to slice the pincers but was concerned when it barely made a dent in the bug's outer exoskeleton.

Annoyed, that a lowly human tried to tint his outer skin, he leaped behind the human and tried to grab it with his two pincers, however, the human seemed to have good reflexes as it struck back before he could stab. A metallic sound can be heard.

The battle between the human and the mantis continued on as neither one would give up. They traded blow to blow which made Astrid impressed at the mantis's strength. They both did not let their guards down fearing the worst. Only time could tell when would make a blunder or miscalculation causing their own deaths.

Astrid was seriously tired. The battle between him and the large mantis drained most of his energy as the mantis couldn't land a hit on him and he couldn't make a cut on the mantis that could be considered 'noticeable.'

Whilst their gallantry was on full display, the wolves carried the injured and the dead to a safe haven. Some even stood a reasonable distance away to observe the battle.

Their battle had destroyed much of the land, specifically the pincers attacks. Every time the mantis would miss, its pincers would dig into the ground causing cracks to form branching out from the spot.

A loud pressure wave would also result from it causing the forked branches to sway as if it was the wind.

Deciding to pull out his trump card at the last minute, he burned a soul to grant him a blackish aura that erupted from his sword.

The aura flared around the circle as it gave off a horrific atmosphere, one that would make them scared and uncomfortable.